Thursday, February 4, 2010

Gender Bender

In a recent study by Richard Russell of Harvard University, the two faces above were perceived as male and female. However, both faces are actually versions of the same androgynous face. One face was created by increasing the contrast of the face, while the other face was created by decreasing the contrast. The face with more contrast is perceived as female, while the face with less contrast is perceived as male.

I'm not sure that this proves much more than that pale skin and darker lips are usually interpreted as more feminine, but perhaps it also provides a useful printing (or make-up) tip, and a reminder that our visual perception is extraordinarily subtle.

10 comments:

Off topic and feel free to delete, but I tried to link to this article from Facebook and apparently your entire blog has been blocked because "Some content in this message has been reported as abusive by Facebook users."

So interesting. I thought the darker one looked more "masculine" because of the dominant eyebrows ...but when I looked again, I thought they were the same face, just as you stated. Again, so interesting!

"If only all blogs were as life-affirming and tender-hearted as that of gallerist James Danziger. Whether his focus falls on the work of an individual artist or a particular theme, The Year in Pictures is compulsive reading."